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Hello, I'm He Feng, co-founder of Simple Psychology, and currently the Chief Operating Officer. First of all, give me a general introduction, because it has a lot to do with the entrepreneurial experience I shared later. I'm from Beijing, and now I'm working on a project in Zhongguancun. Looking back, from kindergarten, primary school, junior high school to work later, it has always been within five kilometers of Fiona Fang. It also witnessed the process of our country from reform and opening up to entrepreneurship.
After graduating from college, I worked in BCG management consulting company, and later I worked in Lenovo company. In fact, when I first graduated, I really wanted to study for a Ph.D. and applied for a Ph.D. program in the Computer Department of Stanford University. Unfortunately, I was not admitted at that time and went directly to work in BCG. After two or three years, I still wanted to go to school, so I applied for an MBA from Stanford University and was successfully admitted. I used my own life experience to prove that Stanford MBA is much easier to apply than PHD.
After graduating from Stanford, influenced by Silicon Valley culture, he was very enthusiastic about starting a business. After returning to China, I did a crowdfunding entrepreneurial project, inspired by American crowdfunding Kickstarter. At that time, the United States was experiencing explosive growth, so I wanted to realize this model in China at that time. Recently, I did a project called Simple Psychology with a beautiful CEO to provide a reliable psychological counseling service on the Internet platform.
In fact, the two entrepreneurial projects I have participated in have completely different ideas. The first one is C2C. Seeing the successful model of America, I want to copy it. The second simple psychological project is completely different, mainly because another founder, Li Xiao, is a psychological counselor himself. After years of observation and participation in the industry, she saw the development direction and demand of this market.
Today, my sharing is mainly about entrepreneurship. Personally, I want to elaborate from four angles: First, what is the idea in starting a business? The second is team, the third is product, and the fourth is execution.
1. Are you starting a business for the sake of starting a business?
According to the two projects that individuals participate in, one is to copy a certain model, and the other is from their own understanding or demand for the industry. In fact, the entrepreneurial environment in China is very different from that in Silicon Valley. At least some people in Silicon Valley are particularly convinced and highly educated. They want to make a product they want, and they are also the first users of this product. Their entrepreneurial ideas are largely generated from this.
There are many examples of such success. Jobs and his partner Wozniak made Wozniak, the first product, just because Wozniak wanted a computer that could meet his work needs, and he happened to be a very good engineer, so this product was born. Then the greatness of Jobs is that he finally promoted this product so that everyone in need can buy it.
As far as China is concerned, as far as my own understanding is concerned, we are in the stage of catching up for a long time, and copying the model of our predecessors is a twice the result with half the effort. The difficulty of creating and copying is very different. The former takes a road that no one has ever taken, which is very difficult. The latter is to imitate the footprint of the former. When there is a successful case, although I don't know the specific details, I at least know that this road can be taken. Even if something goes wrong, you will only doubt the details, not the pattern itself.
Therefore, I think that entrepreneurship in China is also influenced by the environment. Seeing the successful cases in the United States is only a matter of implementation in China, and the idea of starting a business is far from enough. Many people just start a business for the sake of starting a business. Personally, I think we should be very cautious. Although there are successful examples of this model, the chances of success are very small. Compared with entrepreneurs who observe the industry deeply, the probability is much smaller.
Second, choose a partner: quality is higher than talent.
From the perspective of probability statistics, the probability of a person's success in starting a business is very low, and two or three are the most suitable choices. There are many reasons. The first reason is that starting a business is a very difficult process, which requires at least two or three people to share. And we all have an understanding of the past, and we don't want to disappoint each other, regardless of the venture itself. Therefore, it is an emotional responsibility for entrepreneurs to bear more pressure after encountering difficulties under such circumstances.
In the choice of founder, we can't just because he has certain skills or just because he is also starting a business. The best situation is that two people have a long history of communication, especially knowing each other's reaction when facing great pressure and interests. Personally, knowing the founder is more important than being smart and capable. Some qualities in him, such as persistence and persistence in his career, are very important.
In addition to the founder, the company's initial core team is also particularly important. Then there are three principles of recruiting people:
First, smart enough. There are many smart people, which is easy to see and can be distinguished from the conversation with him.
Second, we must have an attitude. Can the recruited people do things successfully and effectively? When they encounter problems at work, they can try their best to finish them.
Third, easy to get along with. Whether you want to be with him or not is actually more of a culture.
Personally, I think the recruitment website is low in cost performance. Many job seekers are Haitou, but they don't know enough about the company itself. In fact, if job seekers are attracted by the company itself, then recruitment is more reliable. Summarize the three principles just mentioned into one point, that is, whether the early employees of the company have the same enthusiasm for your career and whether they recognize you.
Third, start a business to make products, and don't please most people.
Sharing my understanding, I found that the ideas and practices between the products of startups and those of big companies are still very different. For a startup company, it is very important to find a product acceptable to the market as soon as possible. Even if the product has just been launched, it cannot be accepted and liked by a large number of users.
As a startup company, first make a product, which must be liked by very few people. Instead of making most people feel good, most users feel good is not a good phenomenon. What you have to do is that your product makes 100 people feel great. If the product disappears tomorrow, they will be very miserable. Although it is difficult to get a product recognized by a small number of users, it is very difficult to get more users to accept it through continuous improvement. However, it is much less difficult than if the product is accepted by 10 thousand users and then improved according to the needs of users.
How to make a product that everyone likes? This requires you to be close to users. You'd better be the user of the product and do it according to your own needs, so that people with the same needs as you will fall in love with your product. So making a product for yourself has many innate advantages.
Every product has a continuous improvement cycle. A cycle is actually very simple, and a three-step cycle is good. Find a BUG or some functional requirements put forward by users, develop it and show it to your users. In fact, in internet companies, this cycle is very fast, and it is possible to complete a cycle or reincarnation in a few hours or dozens of minutes. Compared with companies that start businesses by hardware or other means, the Internet industry still has great advantages. Even if the product only improves by 1% every cycle. But the time is short and the cycle is fast, and the product will gradually become very excellent.
Fourth, ensure efficient implementation.
After the idea, team and product of starting a business are completed, it is a very long process to implement it. Perhaps the first three things can be realized in a year or two after starting a business, but it will take five or eight years to implement them. In the process of implementation, the CEO has a very important job. He needs to make a plan for the whole company, find the best people to join the team, raise funds and so on. But the most important thing is to ensure and confirm that the company is always in an efficient implementation process.
Fifth, the entrepreneurial atmosphere is very important.
Finally, I would like to share with you some advice on starting a business: If you want to start a business, you need to integrate into an environment that encourages entrepreneurship and a group of people who support entrepreneurship. Everyone knows that there are many people who come out to start businesses in Silicon Valley. As a city, there are many big American cities in San Francisco that far surpass it in development, but only Silicon Valley has the highest entrepreneurial density. I think this is an environmental problem, because there is a culture of encouraging entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, and starting a business in Silicon Valley is something to be proud of, even if it fails. So don't underestimate the impact of the environment on individuals. If you have the idea and willingness to start a business, you need an environment to encourage entrepreneurship and a place with a strong entrepreneurial culture. Beijing in China is a good choice.
As a product manager, if you are willing to start a business, you should not only be familiar with your personal business, but also cultivate your hobbies or get to know more people from other industries. Especially hobbies, are likely to be the source of your entrepreneurial inspiration. If you are interested in a certain industry, or regard it as a hobby, then know as many people as possible in this industry and know as much as possible about its development. When you see a startup that you recognize, you can take the initiative to exchange product experience with them. At present, most start-ups are recruiting people. As long as you can bring some help to the company and make it grow as soon as possible, it will definitely be very popular!